


Nightlights

by Vampiricalthorns



Series: Solangelo One-Shots [13]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Austistic Will Solace, Fluff, Genderfluid!Nico, Light Angst, M/M, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace Fluff, Trans!Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 15:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12061383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiricalthorns/pseuds/Vampiricalthorns
Summary: Something goes wrong in the Apollo Cabin and no one knows quite why.Messy oneshot for @alexfierrno (tumblr)'s birthday last Thursday





	Nightlights

 Will didn’t quite know what was going on. All he knew was that it was very dark, and that somebody was crying. Slowly, he sat up in his bed and looked around, seeing several of the younger kids being comforted by the oldest campers. He quickly got out of bed and walked over to Kayla.

 

“What’s going on?” Will asked in a hushed whisper, looking at the crying camper Kayla was comforting. She couldn’t have been more than seven, her long blonde hair messed up in what appeared to have been pigtails earlier in the day.

 

“We don’t know. Most of the younger kids are affected by _something_. We’re not sure what it is yet. It’s not a type of illness, though. It’s almost as if they all had the same nightmare,” Kayla replied before wrapping a blanket around her younger sister’s shoulders. Will was pretty sure her name was Jessica.

 

Will looked around the cabin again, trying to find any obvious differences, even going as far as to look out of the windows. “Hey, Kayla? I think I may have found the reason here.”

 

She got up from Jessica’s bunk and walked over to where Will was standing by the window. “Look. It’s so dark outside. All the torches are extinguished and there are no stars in the sky. It’s all cloudy like it usually gets during the day when it storms, which is why the cabin is way darker than usual,” Will said, pointing to each thing he described while talking.

 

Kayla gently let her head fall onto her opened hand. “Of course. Children of Apollo are scared of the dark, especially the younger ones. Why didn’t we think of that?”

 

Will thought for a moment. “I have no idea. We’re probably too tired to think straight-”

 

“As if you could ever do anything straight,” Kayla muttered. “You’re bi.”

 

Will looked at her with a slightly pointed look, which was quickly replaced with a small smile. “Haha, very funny. As I was saying, you guys should turn on all the lights we have while I go talk to Chiron.”

 

Kayla nodded and hurried back to where the rest of the older kids were trying to calm their smaller siblings while Will pulled on a hoodie and went towards the door, flipping on the light switch as he passed it. “I’ll be right back. Just gotta have a word with Chiron.” He glanced at the clock. “At 3 am, I really hope he doesn’t mind.”

 

Will shuddered as he walked through the dark camp towards the Big House. Even he, who was 15 and dating the Son of Hades, was still uneasy of the dark. It was just impossible to not be scared unless Nico was there. He shook his head to clear his mind as he stepped up to the porch and went inside the house in the direction of Chiron’s office.

 

“Will? What are you doing here?”

 

Will looked to the left, seeing Nico and Chiron sitting inside the Big House’s living room. He went inside the room and sat down next to Nico on the couch.

 

“Cabin 7 is having a bit of a problem, sir,” Will said, smiling a bit as Nico’s hand found its way onto his lap before intertwining their fingers. “We had a- I guess you can say problem with the darkness.”

 

Chiron leant forward with his brow furrowed. “Could you specify a bit more? Maybe it ties in with Nico’s experience tonight.”

 

Will looked over at his partner – Nico had come out to Will as genderfluid just a couple weeks earlier and Will didn’t want to misgender Nico on purpose even if he had been told that it was okay if Will just used he/him when he wasn’t sure.

 

“Well, everything went as normal up until I think about 25 minutes ago. Kayla, Austin and I got woken up by our younger siblings being obviously upset about something. We couldn’t immediately find the problem before I noticed my own anxiety because of how dark it was. Most of the nightlights in the cabin were off- even if we had turned on all of them before going to bed. There were also no lit torches outside or stars in the sky.”

 

Chiron stroked his beard as he thought for a moment. “Peculiar. The ‘no stars in the sky’ is easy enough to explain. I forgot to inform everyone about the storm that will be going on until dinner time tomorrow. As for the torches and nightlights, I don’t know.”

 

“Could it be some prank Hermes and Hecate pulled but it backfired?” Nico said, absentmindedly playing with the hem of a sweatshirt he had stolen from Will. “He/him by the way,” he mumbled softly enough to Will so that Chiron wouldn’t hear it.

 

“I mean of course that it is possible.” Chiron looked at his watch. “I think it should be okay to have a small counsellor meeting now. It’s 3.15 am, but I have a feeling that nobody in Cabin 7 will sleep before this is fixed. Do you two mind finding the Stoll brothers, Lou Ellen and Clovis?”

 

“No, we’ll be right back,” Will said, standing up before offering a hand to Nico who took it with a small smile.

* * *

 

“So, what do you think happened, _Tesoro_?” Nico asked as they left the Big House in the direction of the Hecate Cabin. “You just woke up and the younger people were crying? No explanation as to why all the lights were out at all?”

 

“No, I don’t know if there is an explanation at all. At least we couldn’t find one.” Will glanced towards the Apollo Cabin. “Do you mind if I quickly have a word with Kayla and see how they’re handling the situation? I can’t imagine that it’s easy for three or two teens to calm down a dozen of younger kids who are afraid of the dark.”

 

“No, not at all. I understand. It’s your family. I’ll wait for you outside,” Nico said with a small smile before sitting down on the porch of Cabin 7. Will smiled and let his hand run through Nico’s hair before entering the cabin, walking over to his own bed.

 

“Everything under control here?” Will asked as he dug up a pair of warmer socks he could wear outside, since November nights were cold. Kayla looked up from the book she was reading for the younger kids- all of who had stopped crying for now but were clutching various blankets and teddy bears as if they were a lifeline. “I think so. Nobody’s crying anymore, and I’m hoping the exhaustion of being awake at night takes over soon enough.”

 

Will nodded. “Okay, good. I’m off again. Talked to Chiron. We’re calling in a small counsellor meeting with Nico, Lou Ellen, Clovis, me and the Stoll brothers. We’re gonna try to figure out why the torches and nightlights aren’t working. Also, there is a storm going on until tomorrow, which is why the sky is so dark and cloudy.”

 

“I hope you can figure it out. We need to get some more sleep before the morning,” Kayla said before returning her attention to the book.

 

Will nodded and left the cabin again, looking at Nico playing with a skeleton cat on the porch. “Aww, it’s cute. Did you summon it?”

 

Nico looked up with a fond smile on his face. “I did. I needed a distraction while you were inside. But anyways, who are we going to wake up first? Lou Ellen?”

 

“I think that would be the best idea. Then she can help us wake up and keep Clovis awake as we get the Stoll brothers.” Will took Nico’s hand and started to head in the direction of the Hecate Cabin. As they walked, Nico let the skeleton cat collapse into a pile of bones which eventually disappeared into the ground.

 

“So, do we just walk inside and wake her up silently? Or should we just knock until someone opens the door?” Nico asked as they approached the cabin.

 

Will thought for a moment. “I know Lou Ellen pretty well. I think it should be okay to just go inside to wake her up. No need to wake the whole cabin for nothing.”

 

Nico nodded and opened the door, holding it open for Will as they walked inside. “She has bright purple hair now I think,” Will whispered. “She should be somewhere close to the back of the cabin, from what she had told me.”

 

After a couple seconds, Nico tugged at Will’s hoodie sleeve. “Is that her over there? The one standing behind one of the bookshelves?”

 

Will took a step forward and called out, “Lou? Is that you?”

 

The figure turned around and Will caught the glimpse of bright purple hair before it was suddenly right in front of him. “Heyo there, Will, Nico. What are you two doing here at 3.30 am? Also, can we talk outside? I don’t want to wake my siblings up. Would be unfortunate seeing as most of them are exhausted from all the magic we did earlier.”

* * *

 

“So, what we’re basically doing is trying to find a reason for why all the nightlights and torches went out?” Lou Ellen said, pulling part of her hair into a messy bun. “And this was crucial to do at 3 am because...?”

 

“Because no one in Cabin 7 can sleep until the problem is solved, which is why we’re bringing Clovis with us. Maybe he knows a way to help the younger Apollo kids with their sleep problems,” Will explained as they walked into the Hypnos Cabin to wake up Clovis. “It has started to become a problem. We have several kids who are terrified to go to bed at night.”

* * *

 

“Huh … What’s happening?”

“Be quiet, you two. We don’t need you to wake up the whole Hermes Cabin.”

“Okay, okay, Nico. No need to be mean even if it’s the middle of the night.”

* * *

 

“So, do you wanna tell me why we’re here at who-cares-about-the-time in the morning?” Travis asked, stifling a big yawn.

 

“Yeah, are we in trouble again?” Connor continued.

 

Nico gently shook Clovis’ shoulder to keep him awake. “No. We’re here to figure out a problem in the Apollo Cabin. We thought that it maybe had something to do with some of you.”

 

Travis furrowed his eyebrows. “Hm? Is this about the shaving cream on the bedsheets again? Or putting hair dye in people’s shampoo bottles?”

 

“You guys did that?”

 

“Well, ‘course we did, Nico, but it didn’t work out. You don’t use your own shampoo 99% of the time. You either use the one Hazel brings with her or Will’s. So like that was one of our few failed pranks,” Connor said, looking over a Will. “But it did work out, didn’t it? Mr William here did get his hair dyed bright blue the week _you happened to be at Camp Jupiter_ doing stuff. Death Breath, you’re like the master at avoiding being pranked. It’s a talent honestly. But don’t worry, we will get you one day.”

 

“I’m honoured,” Nico muttered. “But anyways, back to topic. Problem in Apollo Cabin. All the nightlights and torches in the whole camp went out this evening after curfew. We wondered if possibly the Hecate or Hermes Cabin could be involved.”

 

“Would you excuse me for a moment? I’ll go talk to the nymphs and harpies to see if they noticed anything out of the ordinary. I trust all of you to not go crazy while I’m gone.” Chiron made eye-contact with everyone in the room – Will excluded – before leaving the room.

 

Will looked at Lou Ellen, who was in deep thought. “You said your cabin had been doing a lot of magic last night. Could it potentially be related to this?”

 

Lou Ellen looked up at Will, the slightly dazed expression gone. “Maybe. I mean, it was a prank war between us and Hermes. It’s very possible that one of our spells upset the lighting system in the camp. Unfortunately, if it was indeed our fault, it’s nothing we can fix before the morning. It would have been a group spell and those are hard to reverse. The Hecate Cabin will have to figure that out.”

 

Will nodded with a thoughtful look on his face. “Okay then. We will just have to figure out another way to make Cabin 7 sleep peacefully until morning. Do we by any chance have like battery powered lamps or flashlights? Maybe we could put those around the cabin so that it won’t be terribly dark?”

 

Connor and Travis looked at each other. “Yup, we know of a couple. There should be a couple crates stored in the basement for ‘emergencies’.”

 

Will stood up. “Well I think that this could count as an emergency. Come on you guys, we have stuff to carry-” He paused for a moment. “Clovis, you can just go back to your cabin. We’ll discuss this more on Friday during the official counsellor meeting.”

* * *

 

“And you’re sure this’ll work?” Kayla asked as they put up small lights and flashlights all over the cabin. Will looked at her as he handed another string of fairy lights to Nico who hung them up over the windows. “Not exactly, no. But it’s worth a try and makes the cabin pretty. If nothing else works I suppose we’ll just make a blanket and pillow fort and all squeeze in there or something. It’s past four am and we need to get some more sleep before camp wakes up at 8.”

 

Nico came up behind Will and hugged him before whispering, “Mind if I stay over tonight? I don’t wanna go back to my cabin after that nightmare.”

 

“Sure, no problem. We just gotta hang up these last fairy lights and then we’re good to go back to bed. I’m exhausted,” Will said, looking into the box. “just a couple lights left. Any idea of where to put them?”

 

“Over the door to the bathroom?” Kayla suggested as she pulled the covers over some of the younger siblings. “Or in the bathroom in case somebody has to go?”

 

Will slowly pried Nico’s fingers away so that he could bring the two last lights over to the bathroom before looking back at the members of his cabin that were still awake. “We’re done. Everybody, back to bed.”

 

As he laid down in his bed with Nico curled up against his body, he wondered slightly if this had been such a big deal as they had thought. Maybe this had been the wakeup call they all needed to realise the extent of what being trapped in darkness could do to at least the younger children of Apollo.

 

“Goodnight, Angel.” Will whispered into the inky mess that was Nico’s hair before drifting off.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on Tumblr: https://winglessvampire.tumblr.com/


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